Not so brief thoughts on James Gunn's Superman and Nerd Media!

Hey there, I know it's been a while but as I'm getting ready to post some new essays here in the near future I had a mountain of thoughts on the current state of superhero media in general and especially Superman as I feel it's a turning point for many in the space. This is an animation blog and it will stay that way but now and again I'll branch out and cover other topics as I did with architecture back in the day. I'll break this up into parts to make it easier to digest so let's jump right in!

Introduction 

So after seeing the initial Superman trailers I was cautiously optimistic. As a longtime cape media enthusiast, I've had a very rocky relationship with WBs output outside the animation space, while some found things to enjoy in the DCEU era, I very much got disillusioned in that part of my fandom and started to question my own taste, if this was what so many other DC fans liked, was I even a DC fan after all? Were all my favourite adaptations just blips? If this was how so many interpreted these characters and preferred they be portrayed, was I just fundamentally opposed to how DC characters functioned in their fictional worlds? Turns out the answer to all that was nope! 

My Introduction to Superhero Media

When I got into superhero media it was via my dad introducing me to the nerd media of his youth like the Bill Bixby Hulk series, Space 1999 and Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies. I still remember enjoying watching those with him when I was a kid and as I grew older that certainly informed how my taste developed. When I was old enough to start seriously paying attention to serielised stories my first obsessions were Teen Titans, The Batman, Spider-man (1990s series reruns) and Justice League Unlimited. I didn't get to the 90s DC series like Batman TAS until much later but as I started to watch more and more superhero media I didn't really gel with Superman's character until I saw that first episode of Legion of Superheroes in 2007. Despite watching some of early Smallville, I wasn't really the right age to appreciate it as I was too young and in JLU he's a much more serious character who doesn't really have a lot of light-hearted moments. Which made sense for that series because it was a continuation of previous stories so I was just jumping headfirst into later era Superman, But Legion of Superheroes hit me the same time I got into anime like Naruto and Bleach. It just fundamentally captures his earnestness and kindness in a way I hadn't seen before at the time. Despite basically being comic book Superboy, for all intents and purposes he's called Superman for legal reasons which i think may be related to Smallville which is silly but I don't know what DC was thinking with how they limited character availability back then. In that show we got to see Clark and Superman as fundamentally not separate personas. Especially early on. It starts with him at basically his most awkward and lowest and slowly builds him up into who he was always meant to be by showing him go through various situations and grow his friendship with the legion members. He sees his own statue and is intimidated by his own legacy but that's very much a metaphor for parents expectations of you as a kid and the legion being him discovering a group of friends he can finally be vulnerable with and grow emotionally with. With them initially wanting to bring his adult self, the mishap in bringing his younger self ends up being a blessing in disguise, they end up treating him like a friend and peer and any Spector of an imbalanced power dynamic is avoided with that choice. Which makes when he leaves in season 1 work so well, because he has the confidence to power through his awkward patch and when he comes back in season 2 with him having had those memories to cherish from his youth he's grown into who he's meant to be. A beacon of hope. As a kid I didn't realise just how much this series would impact me but as an adult now whose read large sections of every legion run (for better or worse) it's a fundamentally different experience when superman's not with the legion in his early years for me now. For me that'll always be a fundamental part of his origin story and I dislike when it's not included.

Evolution of My Taste in Superhero Media

I won't rehash Man of Steel here but the long and short of it was I wasn't a fan of it. I'd already begun to question certain takes on the character after reading stuff that's always recommended to new fans of comics like The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns (I'd say now that these are actually awful places to start in your comics journey and would definitely colour your conceptions of these characters for the worse unless you are already inclined towards cynicism as a baked in vibe of your preferred media) but this was the first time I'd seen someone so heavily invested in this more cynical take on the character and allowed to bring that forth on a stage that large. It for me was a huge moment where I decided, yeah this particular interpretation isn't for me and I'm sad this is what a generation will grow up with thinking Superman is and can be. 

So the next big Superman turning point for me was the CW Supergirl series. Since I'd read a bunch of comics at that point, having hopped into the hobby after the New 52 and also getting into Marvel with Miles Morales and Kamala Kahn's original runs and Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers, the CW superhero shows ended up being my next obsessions after Legion of Superheroes and Batman: Brave and the Bold. I got exactly the same vibes from that Version of Kara and Clark in the show. While Kara in the show was more of a Clark analogue than she's ever been, the show had that same sense of positivity and earnestness in the face of a world that was growing darker. My headspace was kind of mess back then for many reasons and I'd started falling into a more cynical and negative attitude. It wasn't until I saw certain people around me start to become radicalised into hate and start frothing at the mouth at the shows messaging (not unlike how fandoms have become nowadays) that I basically disassociated myself from that space i was in and those people. I would hear some of the politics in the show on topics like Feminism and Race and Equality and agree with everything Kara was saying and then see some former internet homies just spit nothing but venom, I'm sad to have lost some of those old friends to that negativity but a good amount were also grossed out by the hateful rhetoric and i still interact with them to this day since we all moved onto other platforms together, you don't know someone online truly until y'all go through multiple online spaces and keep in touch i feel, You could say we formed our own legion (of super nerds against hate) haha. I'm thankful that the show allowed me to expand my own politics in a positive way when I was a young adult and allowed me to move away from those attitudes. That's why I ended up so invested in Superman, Supergirl and all these DC heroes again despite what the DCEU was doing. This culminated in the Legion being introduced in Supergirl, several awesome crossovers with Arrow, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow and the universe ending on the high point that was Superman and Lois. 

Meanwhile during all this i was also highly invested in marvels output as i was never in that position with them because this era was one of the best to be a marvel fan. The movies were all great, the comics were trying so many new things with varying levels of success (mostly great tho), and my nerdy ass even got into Star Wars after seeing Force Awakens with my friends. Everything was going great.... until it wasn't. I feel like the start of the current era of discourse was with the reaction to Last Jedi, that movie inadvertently created the fandom climate we have now. If it wasn't for the reaction to that movie and subsequent growth in the hate economy we wouldn't have a whole genre of guy who just lives to hate on everything under the sun. You have these guys forming internet hate campaigns about anything these days. Started with complaining about plot points in Last Jedi to now these guys are at the point that they have physical reactions to the sight of women and black people in video games. It's truly sad. When marvel would put out anything after endgame there was a loud contingent hating on every aspect of it and further calcifying the modern definition of the word "woke", it meant just anything bad at that point, no nuance or debate it just became a synonym for things they hated like women and minorities despite a lot of these fans using it being of those identities, its perplexing. Even when the latest Black Panther movie dropped, I was dismayed at the large contingent of fellow Black Panther fans who were violently against allowing Shuri to take over the mantle for the time being while people mourned Chadwick both in universe and in the real world. They were immediately calling for a recast, they didn't even allow for the truth that Ryan Coogler, the cast and crew went in this direction so they could also grieve their friend and creative partner. Lest we forget, if it wasn't for Boseman and Kani advocating for it, lesser artists might have allowed the characters not to sound authentically African in the first place. That people would put more importance on the fictional character than allowing people to grieve the man who embodied him so earnestly was saddening to me. The Black Panther fandom is already a complex place, there's something of a rift between the fans pre and post Coates' tenure because of differing philosophies on what the characters stories should be about and what the focus should be. Should it just be about wish fulfilment (basically aura farming and hype moments) or should it challenge the very concepts that Wakanda as an idea is founded upon, should the dream of Wakanda evolve somewhat? I may write about this in the future as its fertile ground for in depth exploration but to conclude that point, the fandom at least did agree that whatever they wanted black panther to be, John Ridleys run wasn't it and majority ended up enjoying what Coogler made, with the promise of T'challa's son being the new Black Panther in the future. Other MCU projects werent so lucky however, Every Disney+ outing had its own dedicated haters, DC Comics brought the legion back only to shelve them again only a year and half later, the fandom spaces just became incredibly toxic and thats the context that Gunn being made head of DC happened in. 

James Gunn's Superman 

At that time Superman and Lois was basically the last CW DC series left standing after The Flash ended and Legends of Tomorrow was cancelled. When Gunn announced that Superman and Lois in particular would be ending just before the launch of his DCU, I was sad, I was intrigued at the prospect of a Superman movie by a man who had just included legion meme character, Arm Fall Off Boy in his Suicide Squad movie. But I was still sad that the absolute best interpretation of Superman we'd seen at that point would be ending. 

So colour me surprised that Gunn managed to not only rival that show but absolutely excel in bringing forth the kindest, most beautifully human take on the character yet. Apologies for the long ass preamble but sadly I have not stopped yapping dear reader. First of all, my rating for this movie is a 9/10. Only thing that would bring it to a 10/10 is some Legion of Superheroes glazing and sadly there was none but out of all the live action iterations this is absolutely the one that I can see having been a member in his youth. First of all, it's so insane to me this man Corenswet was this insanely magnetic  in this. The only thing I saw him in previously was that Netflix series Hollywood and he wasn't even the thing I enjoyed most about that show. It's so heart-warming to see a performer grow this much. And Nicolas Hoult as Lex was a revelation. It's just so fun to see him drop the pretense of superiority and just straight up be a hating ass dude. Just absolutely fantastic, zero notes. And his head shape was just perfect, bro is so lucky to have a perfect head for being bald. Then Rachel's Lois, man the casting here is just elite. I love how they characterised her as a more inquisitive and aggressive journalist than we've seen recently. 

So to just briefly go over the story without getting into spoilers, I saw Gunn mention he took inspiration from multiple sources for the story and you can see shades of All Star Superman, Whatever happened to Truth, Justice and the American Way and even various recent series like Smallville, Injustice, and even My Adventures with Superman, which is one of the series that brought the idea of the nature of Kryptonian's not being benevolent to prominence, that is outside of works satirising Superman like Invincible for example. And of course, Justice League International which many people Gunn's age grew up with. The movie starts by laying out Superman intervening in a Eastern European/Middle Eastern (I can't remember exactly were on the map they showed but one side had a very Easterns European flavour while the other felt distinctly Middle Eastern) conflict where one side is civilians (including a lot of children) and the other is a heavily armed force with the backing of the US government, having seen how Gunn depicted the US government in Peacemaker and Suicide Squad that approach was not something new for him. Superman's involvement however becomes an ongoing discussion throughout the film, I like how the movie just immediately stands firm on Superman's modern day motto which is "Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow". He's a hero for everyone here. For Superman, much like how Captain America is portrayed in the MCU, he'll always intervene when he sees people in trouble, especially in a situation like the one presented in the movie where it's plain to see that it's be a massacre if he didn't. But something genius about starting here is it immediately invokes Injustice Superman and rejects him in the same breath. When Superman also got involved in situations all around the world in Injustice, it was in the context of it being understood that superman didn't really get involved in situations going on outside America unless it was something like a natural disaster so when he did get involved in his evil persona, it was obvious he wasn't involving himself for any altruistic reason, it was a power grab, he was exerting his will on the world for selfish reasons that were obvious to the characters in the setting and the reader/viewer. In that series he wasn't seeing the suffering of the people in the crossfire as an inherent reason to get involved and save the lives of people who couldn't defend themselves, instead he was radicalised by the joker into trying to control everything through fear so he wouldn't have to feel helpless like he did when he couldn't save Lois. In a sense, he started treating humanity like children who couldn't control themselves but be violent and hateful. But immediately we see that in Gunn's eyes, he stands for saving every single person who can't help themselves because he fundamentally believes in the preciousness of life, he wasn't forced into an ideology where he wanted to do this via control of people because he already helps everyone, he was just taught to value all life as you would expect from someone who grew up on a farm taking care of animals and growing crops, I find something beautiful about that simplicity and as I've cultivated my own vegetable garden in recent years I completely understand that feeling. And that was just the start of the smart things Gunn did. In his interactions with various characters we see him continuously do everything he can to save even small animals and be frustrated when met with pushback on if he should maybe think more cynically about what he's doing. That frustration I'm sure will resonate for those who like me have wanted to see a superman who isn't afraid to save cats from trees, a superman who saves babies and a Superman who despite being annoyed by a dog like Krypto, still innately treats him with kindness. So basically a complete rejection of some of the themes and messaging of Man of Steel. 

I especially loved how Gunn portrayed the Kent's. It made me cognizant of the bias previous directors have had when casting them. Not being afraid to have them have thick southern accents and casting actors who truly look like farmers. I'm a sucker for a good accent and I think it's always great when a director goes against the grain and has characters have specific regional accents. It's something I deeply love about a lot of UK based shows. Like sure they'll have the majority set in London with generic Southern English accents but a lot of the time we still have shows set elsewhere in the UK where we can see and hear people like us onscreen. In America it's highly biased towards a generic American accent and I think Gunn could have gone the extra step of having Clark slip into the accent at times when he's home to do some light commentary on code-switching, which is something that Clark already does when playing up his Superman persona. So now let's get into spoilers because there was 1 thing I disliked before I get into discussing lex and the other characters.

Spoilers ahead...

So in this movie it is revealed that the El's were not thinking altruistically in terms of their wishes for what their son would do once he got to earth. They wanted him to rule and repopulate, and even have a harem to bear him multiple children. Something about this choice just slightly broke the immigrant/refugee metaphor for me but I understand what his impulse was here. In previous media it's been made clear the El's were upper class Krytonian's, and it makes sense that they'd be a tad off even if they were cognizant enough to warn of the fall of krypton and send their son to safety. The culture has always been portrayed as highly stratified, but I don't know how I feel about Clark pulling away emotionally from them altogether by the end. It could be read as a rejection of his heritage in a sense but he also still has living family in Kara who he can learn about that culture from without the ick factor of his parents words to him. So I'm hopeful we learn more in the Supergirl movie coming next year but I also understand that this is just Gunn further affirming his message from previous works of the people that raised you being just as important to an adopted child maybe even moreso than their bio parents who may or may not be dead/and or evil. I don't like it but I understand what the thinking was and its not a dealbreaker for me.

When Lex Luthor is revealed to have done everything he did in this story PRECISELY because he wanted to manufacture a reason to kill Superman by making him look as bad as possible via the recording of the El's (absolutely hilarious that that's a happy accident for him, begs the question what he would have done if he didn't find anything incriminating)and forcing Superman's hand in the conflict depicted here by moving the pieces to force him to act, because he's inherently jealous and untrusting of Superman's earnestness, it felt to me like bringing the themes of the movie snugly together. Before that I was just expecting Lex's motives to be money and power like we see how he has plans for the land after the people of the land are massacred, but in the end it's all about ego for him. For him, like a lot of people who covet power, they also yearn for people to like them, and to like them more than they do others, he seeks to covet people's love and attention the same way he covets wealth. So Superman's existence basically gets in the way of that because his star shines so bright no one can appreciate Luthor's accomplishments. Or at least that would be the case if he spent nearly as much time trying to help people as he does imprisoning former lovers and metahumans he finds unsightly and causing destruction to the very people he wishes would laud him. I think that's by far the most interesting theme here. Gunn managed to get the message of All Star Superman across in this movie without using a single plot point from it. It's actually insane. I'd highly recommend you folks read/watch that story if you haven't already. 

So that's Superman's very basic main conflict covered but when it comes to the Justice Gang (I love this name it's so fun haha), I think just the fact that James Gunn has included the murder of a corrupt dictator somehow in his last at least 3 projects to be so insanely funny, especially because the deaths get more preposterous each time (not including peacemaker, in that it was the murder of KKK analogues instead). The lineup of Mr Terrific, Guy Gardener and Hawkgirl were also very interesting choices. It speaks to where Gunn's head is at right now. And it's also interesting that they're corporate funded and the other members have suits based on Mr Terrifics. It's obvious he's the leader there but going one step further and modeling them after him was a fun choice, it makes me wonder if that'll remain the case for future members or if they'll get new looks once their arc continues and we see if they stay funded by Maxwell Lord. The lineup is very early 2000s Justice League, dare I say it's a slightly McDuffie-pilled lineup seeing as it's starting to resemble the JLU lineup, especially when seeing what other characters may potentially join going forward. Now I'll be frank, I hate Guy Gardener in the comics, i find gim annoying, but he was awesome here. I finally get the appeal. He's the comic relief of the earth lanterns. They're all the straight man to his antics. And Hawkgirl was a marked departure from all the iterations I've seen so I'm excited to see how she develops going forward. It's great that they have their own arc as a team here. They start off reluctant to do stuff outside America, they seem to just be based in Metropolis even. But by the end they embrace Superman's example of being a hero for all. Metamorpho literally being a character who is all about change being one of the heroes who jumps into the fray at the end also brings that point home seeing as it's not just the Justice Gang but also others who follow that example at the end. 

And lastly, Mr Terrific.... Bruh.... I was almost speechless. I was excited about the casting because while I love X-Men First Class, I was always sad about how Edi got short-changed in that movie. So seeing him in all his glory getting a cool fight scene and getting to show his intelligence up against Lex Luthor. Man it was just emotional. It felt like the delivery of a promise made in that X-Men movie. Edi finally got his big moment. And I know he's been a lead in other projects since then but as I'm a tasteless Cape shit enjoyer this is the only thing I've seen him in since. Let me have my moment. I wanna thank Gunn for allowing the space for Mr Terrific to shine like this. Another character who I liked in JLU and the comics who never got the justice he deserved in adaptations after that. So overall, loved the movie, Loved seeing my Superman back, I'm praying they get the legal issues with Milestone resolved so we can get that Static movie going. W James Gunn, can't wait for Peacemaker season 2. The biggest compliment I can give the movie is this finally feels like a superman I can believe grew up fighting alongside the Legion of Superheroes.

My next essay post will be a breakdown of several of the DC Animated Movie Universe movie's and my thoughts of those productions from back in the day. See you then!